Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Small Rural Hospitals Just Managing To Climb Out Of Financial Black Hole Now Face A Pandemic

Rural hospitals have long worked under the extra challenge of navigating uncertain government funding to deliver health care to a population that is statistically older, poorer and sicker than much of the country. This outbreak will only make things worse for those struggling hospitals. Hospitals news comes out of California and Georgia, as well.

The Wall Street Journal:
Small Tennessee Hospital Faces Crunch Time As Coronavirus Hits
Keeping federal money away from small hospitals that have survived against the odds isn’t a smart move during the coronavirus crisis, bankruptcy lawyers say. Lauderdale Community Hospital in Ripley, Tenn., is one of many rural medical centers trying to figure out what to do next amid the pandemic. The hospital has made a turnaround since its March 2019 bankruptcy filing, climbing out of a financial hole that had forced it to close its emergency room. Several bidders were preparing to show up for a bankruptcy auction this March, but the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to that. (Brickley, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare:
A Quarter Of Rural Hospitals Are At Risk Of Closing
A quarter of U.S. rural hospitals are at high risk of closing as operating margins wane and the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to erode their finances, according to new research. More than 350 rural hospitals across 40 states are vulnerable, particularly those in the South, according to updated research by Guidehouse (formerly Navigant) that analyzed operating margins, days cash on hand, debt-to-capitalization ratios and inpatient census. Those hospitals represent more than 222,350 annual discharges, 51,800 employees and $8.3 billion in total patient revenue. (Kacik, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal:
Rural Hospitals Unsure Coronavirus Aid Is Coming
Embattled rural hospitals, some on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, stand to lose out on billions of dollars in federal aid, with industry experts worried that financial lifelines could come too late—or not at all. A lack of clarity on what the government will pay for, and when, means that money isn’t available for the hospitals that need it right now, said Andrew Helman, a bankruptcy lawyer and co-chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s health-care committee. Bankruptcy lawyers across the country are badgering lawmakers, wooing creditors and asking banks to take risks to keep small hospitals alive until aid money comes through. (Brickley, 4/9)

ABC News:
Amid Global Pandemic, Global On-The-Fly Innovation In Some Hospitals
With hospitals fighting over limited supplies of equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic, some doctors and nurses working in the most sensitive settings are getting creative to protect themselves and their teams from the deadly disease, and finding help from an idea hatched half a world away. ABC News previously reported on some hospitals using baby monitors to check in on their patients while limiting their exposure, and now some critical care workers said they are innovating again to solve a particularly tricky problem: how to intubate and extubate coronavirus patients -- meaning inserting a tube down a sedated patient's throat to give them oxygen and later removing it -- while still shielding themselves from exposure to the virus. (Siegel, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare:
HHS To Give $1.3 Billion To Community Health Centers
HHS Wednesday announced that it would grant $1.3 billion to 1,387 community health centers funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration."Increasingly, people are turning to health centers for the first line of defense in combating emergency public health priorities like the novel coronavirus," HSRA Administrator Tom Engels said. "Health centers will put these resources to immediate use to respond to emerging and evolving local needs and continue to deliver high-quality primary health care services to their patients." (Brady, 4/8)

Los Angeles Times:
Objection Raised To Soon-Shiong Bid To Buy L.A. Hospital
After California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra raised objections Wednesday to the proposed sale of a closed Los Angeles hospital, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said he would seek to purchase the medical campus personally rather than use a foundation controlled by him and his wife, Michele B. Chan. Becerra said in a court filing that the proposed sale of St. Vincent Medical Center by Verity Health System, a nonprofit in bankruptcy, to the Soon-Shiong foundation is subject to review and consent by the attorney general. (Smith, 4/8)

Los Angeles Times:
Georgia Hospital Battles Intense Coronavirus Outbreak
Before Mandy Hall lined up to have her temperature taken, don a surgical mask and step through the glass doors of the hospital, she recited a line from the Old Testament. Perhaps this is the moment for which you were created. It was not yet 7 a.m., and the small emergency room was already crammed with dozens of COVID-19 patients struggling to breathe. (Jarvie, 4/8)

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